👋 Good morning! How about Tyler Steen trying to fight the entire Commanders defense, Jon Snow style?

Steeny! Who knew that young man ran so hot? Longtime readers know that Steen has always been My Guy, but even I cannot say that he has put together a standout year on the Eagles’ struggling offensive line. The Film Grinders mostly seem to think that Steen has been fine, perhaps not the line’s biggest issue but also not a difference-maker. During games, I cannot notice much else other than Steen tapping Cam Jurgens on the back as part of the Eagles’ shotgun snap cadence.

Well, this was certainly one way to get noticed by your average Eagles fan. While fighting the entire Commanders defense may not necessarily have been the smartest course of action we have seen in midnight green, Tyler Steen is now officially a dawg. Whenever Steen does something remotely good moving forward, I have no choice but to bark at my television set. WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF! 🐶🐶🐶🐶🐶🐶

Speaking of that play, reasonable minds can differ on whether or not the Eagles should have went for two to go up 19. Our post-game show panel certainly did, which made for some good podcastin’. But their disagreement was strictly viewed through an Eagles lens. Looking at the other sideline, and how they handled the decision, are Dan Quinn And His Backwards Hat serious?

I completely understand Fran’s viewpoint that the Eagles going for two in that spot is a sort of faux aggressiveness in the context of the entire season. It is quite convenient to use “the analytics” (which might lead you to kick, depending on the model) as a crutch when you are up 17 with four minutes left… and then when the game is close, the Eagles treat every end-of-half drive as if the only goal is to run out the clock. It just does not add up.

But watching Dan Quinn And His Backwards Hat, who punted on 4th and 6 from midfield down 11 points with six minutes left in the game, complain about this makes me feel better about the Eagles going for two. Whatever you think of the decision, it was not Buddy Ryan running a fake kneeldown with 10 seconds left (which, in fairness, was also a retaliatory decision of sorts).

Dan, you very likely are gonna be playing a bunch of second and third-stringers in two weeks, my man! — Rich Hofmann

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There is nothing, and I mean nothing, better on the schedule than “at Washington” in December/January.

Josh Harris is gonna build a nice modern stadium in Washington D.C., so Eagles fans need to savor the final few years of that old dump in Landover that Harris inherited. So many great late-season memories for the Birds down in Maryland, with that place half-full with only raucous Eagles fans. In fact, there was no better and more fitting place for The Streak to end.

On one hand, it is absolutely fair to describe that performance as “an ugly win.” This was not the same type of thorough beatdown that we saw a week ago against Las Vegas… who did almost win in Houston yesterday, Any Given Sunday and all.

But when looking under the hood of the Eagles’ 29-18 win over Washington, I feel reasonably good about it. Not great, but pretty good. All season, what has frustrated me the most about this Eagles team is how poorly the offense has performed on a play-by-play basis. For months, I have ranted and raved about the three-and-outs and the Eagles getting outgained by their opponents. The Eagles have been getting propped up by an unsustainable turnover margin and red-zone performance on both sides of the ball.

Well, there were two three-and-outs like always, but the Eagles were actually pretty good on a play-by-play basis on Saturday!

You look at Deniz’s charts and it’s easily one of the Eagles’ four-best offensive games of the season from an efficiency standpoint.

Now, was it pretty? No, Washington’s defense is terrible and I thought the Eagles got a pretty favorable whistle at times. Situationally, it was the type of uneven game where Jalen Hurts had to throw a perfectly-placed ball to Dallas Goedert because the Eagles could not get one yard with a simple Tush Push. It was the type of game where the end-of-half drive was so painstakingly slow that you wonder if the Eagles even want to score a touchdown at all. And on the other side of the ball, the Eagles defense faced Josh Johnson for much of the second half. Not their toughest competition, for sure.

OK, caveats aside, let’s be real here: The Eagles dominated that game.

So, a disastrous special teams day and Kelee Ringo spotting Washington eight points. Take all of that stuff away, and it’s a three-touchdown win.

In particular, I liked two things about the Eagles offense on Saturday. The first was all of the Empty sets. I will let EJ explain.

The second thing I liked about the offense was the running game looking dominant for the first time since the bye: 34 carries for 207 yards and a touchdown. I do not know what the better Saquon Barkley run was, the spin move in the backfield or the touchdown run. But both were awesome, as Saquon ran angry after halftime.

And then for the defense, it was business as usual against an overmatched team. Nice day for the extended PHLY family: BG gets a sack, Coop gets a pick.

Jordan Davis, who is not part of the extended PHLY family (although the offer is on the table, Jordan), continues to have a wonderful fourth season. Sometimes it really does take a few years with defensive tackles. EJ wrote about Davis late last week.

Perfect? No, but I will take a trip down to Landover in December any day of the week.

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Think about that: $2,500 for furniture, and then $1,000 for art to decorate your walls. Imagine the setup that you could have for watching football next year!

Enter now at ashleyfancave.com and you might be watching the next big game in a fan cave built by you, courtesy of Ashley. The winner for The Ultimate Fan Cave will be selected the week of the Super Bowl.

#KickerTalk: I saw that some Eagles fans are now calling Jake Elliott “Missy Elliott,” which seems disrespectful to a two-time Super Bowl champion but is also kinda funny. Poor Jake has had a tough go with nicknames. Remember when DeVonta Smith started calling him Chicken Little?

Kicking is a bottom-line business, and the bottom line is that for the second straight year, Jake has been a below-average NFL kicker. He currently ranks 38th of 40 qualified kickers in field goal percentage, and the two guys above and below him are not on their original teams anymore.

Unlike those guys, Jake has built some equity with this organization. And after struggling a season ago, he was mostly awesome in the playoffs last year. But again, kicking is a bottom-line business. There are too many capable guys on the street for Jake to have many more bad weeks. Kickers are really good now, and making 71 percent of your kicks is just not gonna cut it for a division champ.

RIP Tush Push: The Eagles went 0 for 2 this week and are down to just 60 percent on the season according to The Tracker. Far from “an automatic play,” as the interior of the offensive line continually fails to generate any push.

Bo’s point that the Eagles “are so in their head about it” was a good one. The coaching staff now seemingly does not even understand the proper situations to run the play. Saturday’s game was a perfect example, the first two drives in particular:

Maybe table it until next season.

Josh Johnson as Forrest Gump: I have nothing against Johnson, who is still in the league at 39 years old after playing on an NFL-record 14 teams. Fascinating career. The guy got drafted when I was in high school and I have not been in high school for a long time.

But Johnson has become the Forrest Gump of big Eagles wins over the years, someone who just happens to be passing through. Perhaps none of these losses are Johnson’s fault, but he always ends up showing up…

Help on the way: Jalen Carter and Lane Johnson for next week, per Adam Schefter. And it seems like Nakobe Dean is OK, too.

The First Exciting 20-Year-Old in Today’s Newsletter: Denver Barkey. So, the Flyers blew a 4-2 lead and lost 5-4 in a shootout at Madison Square Garden on Saturday. Rough couple weeks of shootouts for the Orange and Black, who are still plenty competitive and not losing a ton of ground in the standings. I am getting pretty tired of Sam Ersson’s save percentage starting with an 8 in every game he plays, though.

But before the game, the Flyers sent Egor Zamula through waivers and then down to Lehigh Valley, calling Denver Barkey up in the process. Barkey had been playing well in the AHL.

The big question is why Barkey got called up and not Alex Bump? As Charlie writes, Barkey does have that one clear NHL skill-set with his motor. Maybe that plays better immediately for a team trying to compete? And Barkey had quite the career debut at MSG, finishing with two assists. Petey was loving Barkey on the post-game show.

Nice to see Barkey up with the big club. He has been a guy we have tracked over the past few years, as he won the Memorial Cup in London. One half of the law firm Barkey and Bonk is now officially with the big club. Barkey is another example that in the Flyers’ rebuild, the Orange and Black are gonna be absolutely fine on the wings. It’s everywhere else where there are some question marks.

The Second Exciting 20-Year-Old in Today’s Newsletter: VJ Edgecombe. I usually write too long about the Sixers, so I am gonna keep this part short and sweet.

Remember when VJ Edgecombe turned heads for two weeks at the start of his NBA career? He slowed down a little for about a month after that, put a thick headband on, and now is back to turning heads.

I am enjoying this Sixers season. They play a close game every single night, and they got two nice wins this weekend against the Knicks and a rested Mavericks team. VJ was a monster down the stretch at MSG against those Cup-disrepectin’ Knicks. The Basketball Gods do not appreciate a team disrespecting The Cup!

And then there is the future hope of what a Tyrese Maxey-VJ Edgecombe backcourt could look like. We do not know exactly what the Sixers have in VJ, but he is already a very good rookie with the tools to become a much better player. Maxey is already a beast who brings it every single night. Legitimately exciting.

The Flyers are playing their only home game in a few weeks against Vancouver (7:30 p.m., NBC Sports Philly and NHL Network). And we are back at Reading Terminal Market before the Flyers show. Come stop by!

Your tentative Monday schedule at PHLY:

Let's make it a good one.

Rich Hofmann
Daily Newsletter Editor
PHLY SPORTS